Hands-on Sight Words Activities in Kindergarten

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How can we teach sight words in kindergarten? Sight words are words that your students learn to read and place in their “sight word bank”. This means that they are able to read the word by sight, no longer needing to use decoding skills or phonics patterns to help them read. Once your students have a large sight word bank, it is a great resource to help them with both reading and writing skills.

How Can I Help My Students Learn Sight Words in Kindergarten?

Just like many kindergarten teachers, I start my literacy lessons with a sight word of the day. Sometimes this sight word is brand new to the kids and other times itโ€™s a word we have been practicing all week. We start by spelling it and reading it in a sentence. I have them write the word on a whiteboard and oftentimes I play a song about the sight word to help engrain the word in their minds. We always get these catchy tunes stuck in our heads, but it works! 

I like to facilitate the learning of sight words with simple worksheets or task cards that have students reading the word, building it and then using it in a sentence. I created these Sight Word Task Cards to use in our literacy centers.

They are extremely easy to prep, just laminate and use over and over! I printed the words we are focusing on that week and have them on hand to use throughout the day. They are great to have around for students that are struggling to remember their words as well. 

Task cards like these are great because they give the students multiple opportunities to practice the words. Once they learn how to correctly map the high frequency word, and memorize the “tricky” parts, they can practice reading and writing the words correctly. 

I also like to have my students write the sight words we are practicing during rotations. These Sight Word Writing Practice activities are great to assign for classwork, homework or you can laminate them for center use. 

How Can Technology Help?

Since students are living in such a digital age, I have also created Sight Word Boom Cards that can be used in the classroom or at home. These cards help students learn a variety of high frequency words. Each word has 6 cards to expose your students to the words you are assigning them.

I typically assign the sight words based on the words we are learning that week and students can access them in technology centers or during literacy rotations. Then, at home they can access them for additional practice. If they are learning virtually, I can assign them through Google Classroom or Seesaw. Students (and parents) love how easy they are to use.ย 

Free Sight Word Practice!

If youโ€™re looking to try out some fun sight word activities, check out this sight word Roll & Read practice for FREE! My kindergartners enjoy rolling the dice, reading, and writing the words with dry erase marker.

Sight Words are a ton of fun and Iโ€™ve found that my students really enjoy showing off the words that they know come assessment time. I hope you can make it fun by incorporating some of these ideas and resources in your primary classrooms!